Pacers Sitting On Stockpile Of White Dudes
Thursday night, the Indiana Pacers took Tyler Hansbrough. Though this was right around Tyler’s projected draft position, the various friends I was watching the draft alongside — not to mention the thousands of wise-ass commenters in the Ball Don’t Lie live blog — let loose with the derision. “Oh, come on. Really? Hansbrough? Wow, good luck Pacers.” And so on.
Then, when late-working roommate Paul finally got home from his backbreaking white-collar job, and he was informed of where Hansbrough was drafted, he said: “By the Pacers? Ha. Figures.”
Paul and I went to Indiana University together, and maybe you have to be an outsider living in the state for a while to see this — locals always denied it, of course — but there’s no question that the more traditional types in the state prefer white basketball players, or at least the kind of basketball played by players with traditionally “white” games. They value “shooting” and “defense” and “hard work” and “back cuts” and they hate “thuggery” and “headbands” and “flashiness” and all of the other little code words that people associate with race and basketball. The root cause is the culture and demographics of the state, and part of it can be blamed on Hoosiers. Part of it can be blamed on Bob Knight and Gene Keady. And part of it can be blamed on Larry Bird, whose transcendent white-boy basketball game kept this conversation alive well into the early 90’s. In an NBA obsessed with race, or at least with limiting the liabilities race presents, it still exists.
And it’s still Larry Bird prominently involved. Bird took Hansbrough at No. 13. Since the Ron Artest fight and the Stephen Jackson shooting and all the rest of it, Bird has been conspicuously acquiring white players. Whether or not he’s been doing it at the expense of the team — I would argue there were better players than Hansbrough at No. 13, but it’s not a slam dunk — is a different argument. But he very clearly has been doing it.
That this is seen as a viable marketing strategy — hey, maybe if we get enough white dudes, people will stop being so stereotypical about the NBA! — is a testament to the lasting nature of race in basketball and to Indiana’s unspoken preoccuption with it. Bird knows what the casual Pacers fan will “embrace.” Or he thinks he knows. Neither option exactly smacks of progress.
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Nor does the behavior of black athletes, on or off the court.
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this is a ridiculous article.
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So I'll concede that Bird MAY value that sort of athletic ability in players less than some others and place more relative emphasis on a guy's passing, shooting, and basketball IQ. That would make sense, considering the kind of player Bird was.
But I think the racist interpretation is unwarranted. Roy Hibbert fell to the Pacers last year, and the general consensus was that he wasn't "athletic" enough to warrant a higher pick. But the Pacers like him because he's a "hard worker." This fits in with the Hoosier concept of what makes good basketball that you talked about, and Hibbert shows that concept is independent of race, at least for the Pacers front office. So I'm not sure why we're dragging the "race" angle in here.
And I would further question whether the general consensus on the Hansbrough's future success in the NBA isn't based a little bit on his skin color. The guy was National Player of the Year, and one of the best players in the history of college basketball. Few think his game translate to the pros, and a lot of that is based on his perceived lack of athletic ability. In a workout with the Nets, however, his combine numbers weren't too different from Blake Griffin or Jordan Hill (http://www.netsdaily.com/blog/?p=889). In fact, Hansbrough's performance was very comparable to Hill's.
Honestly, I don't have high expectations for Hansbrough in the NBA either. But I'll be frank - it's because he's white. It's not like there's a lot of American white dudes in the league who are considered anything but role players. In fact, I can't think of one. And it's probably a little bit racist of me to judge Hansbrough on that, or at least it's prejudiced. Because I am prejudging him on his skin tone.
So my point rounds into this: is it really Bird or the Indiana market that's a little bit racist here, or is it the rest of us?
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His team got beat by the Los Angeles Lakers, with players like Kobe, Lamar, Ariza, Bynum, Derek Fisher, & Shannon Brown play what you call "white" basketball.
Who's the racist?
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Larry bird has hired less than 30% white players since he took over our franchise...
Whoa... Stop the f'n presses... Larry bird is apparently "racist" according to this tool of a writer...
Larry has added 8 black players and 3 white players in a little over a year as our leader...
Again... let me repeat that I am a "WHITE" Pacers fan in Indiana...
Danny Granger ("BLACK") is my current favorite player and hopefully soon to be our Olympic rep... With Jermaine O'Neal ("BLACK") being my all-time favorite Pacer... And it has to be known that the greatest Pacer of all time, Reggie Miller ("BLACK") is beloved by every single Pacer fan...
I love flashy basketball... I try to do it as much as possible myself... I wear a headband, a sleeve, wristbands, and plastic wrist bands every time I step on the court...
And...
Good shooting...
Good defense...
Hard work...
Back cuts...
What idiot basketball mind doesn't want that?
But I will tell you one of these stereotypes about Pacers fans in Indiana was right...
We don't want "THUGS"...
Again... What idiot basketball mind does want that?
A thug to me is not necessarily a "BLACK" person...
It is a person who often times has bad intentions and then acts on them...
"WHITE" people can be thugs too... And I don't want them on my Pacers team either!
I am sorry... but this idiot writer was prolly just having a hard time coming up with something intellectual to write about the NBA...
So he took the easy route and wrote about something idiots think about instead... RACE...
Come on people... It starts with you... Right now...
Forget race as an issue... Ever... And maybe one day it will go away...
But not when there are morons like this writer throwing it up into our laps... Or rather our laptops...
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I don't really think that race matters. If the cant guard anyone then they are the model of Bird's idea of a Pacer.
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